US-Mali visa row: US removes Mali from list requiring visa bonds

The two countries required each other's citizens to post up to 10,000 dollars in bonds if they are applying for a tourist or business visa. The US has now removed Mali from the list of countries required to post visa bonds to obtain a US visa.

Up to $10,000 in bonds for a tourist or a business visa.

This is the effort Malian citizens and then their counterparts from the US had to make to obtain a visa to the other respective country.

The visa policy row between the two nations started in early October, when the US introduced the new visa bond pilot programme and put Mali on the list, with an implementation date set for 23 October 2025.

Mali then retaliated with an identical policy.

On 23 October, the US however published a revised list of countries whose citizens are required to post visa bonds, which did not include Mali.

Mali has not yet responded to the US initiative, and for now its visa bond requirement for American citizens remains intact.

For US visas, citizens from the following African countries are still required to post bonds from the following implementation dates onwards:

• Mauritania (Oct. 23, 2025)
• Sao Tome and Principe (Oct. 23, 2025)
• Tanzania (Oct. 23, 2025)
• The Gambia (Oct. 11, 2025)
• Malawi (Aug. 20, 2025)
• Zambia (Aug. 20, 2025)

Washington has used visa policies as a means of political pressure on several African nations in the past couple of months. It notably temporarily suspended visas for Zimbabwean citizens, and has most recently also suspended visa proceedings in Burkina Faso, after the country refused to take in deportees from the US.